PENNY POSTAGE HAS GONE IN ENGLAND.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 8 October 1918, Page 4

PENNY POSTAGE HAS GONE IN ENGLAND.

Penny postage, which, disappeared at midnight on Sunday, June 2, was one of the great triumphs of peace, and succumbed only to the demands of war. Although the price has gone, the principle remains, and nothing has been a truer index to the march of progress than the penny stamp. Its first use in 1840 for inland postage amounted almost to a revolution. That date fixes the "great divide" between the old postal systems and the new. The penny stamp, probably more than any other influence, exorcised a power in holding together the scattered bonds of kinship and acquaintance throughout the farflung British Empire, and as a factor in Imperial tradeit provided the facilities upon which modern trading depends. ' Many years ago, King Edward, then Prince of Wales, said he looked forward with hope to the day when every Eng-lish-speaking man, in whatever part of the world he might be, should be regarded as being as much an Englishman so far as the penny postage was con< cerned, as if he lived in Kent or Sussex. In connection with the movement which has been started with a view to tho establishment of shipbuilding yards in New Zealand, Mr B. J. Cooke, at the last meeting of the Marlborough Chamber of Commerce, warmly advocated tho claims of Picton, and it was decided to bring the 'matter under tha notice of the Associated Chambers a.t next month's conference in the form of a remit. "